The One Company You Can't Ignore
If TSMC is the exclusive landlord, then a Dutch company called ASML builds the house itself. And the bricks, and the plumbing. ASML makes a machine, a ridiculously complex piece of kit using extreme ultraviolet lithography, that is the only tool on Earth capable of etching the microscopic patterns required for a chip like the M5.
They have a complete, iron-clad monopoly. Each machine costs north of £150 million and takes an age to build. This isn’t a competitive market, it’s a one-company show. Without ASML’s technology, the M5 simply doesn’t exist. It’s the ultimate bottleneck, and for an investor, bottlenecks can be wonderfully profitable things. As the world demands ever more powerful chips for everything from artificial intelligence to self-driving cars, every single manufacturer will need ASML’s magic ovens.